SKIP TO CONTENT
We’ve all been there. It’s the first week of January and you can still feel the wind of the 2017 doors closing behind you. New goals and aspirations fill your mind while the whispers of motivation still dance around your brain. Losing weight? More financial security? Maybe a new house? Whatever your goal, it’s almost destined to last a week or two until the realities of life, work, and kids set in once again, forcing your once seemingly obtainable goals to the backburner. Again. For the third year in a row.
Let’s talk about something with some honesty. There’s only one way to reach your goal, and it’s not by posting a motivational quote on your mirror.
To reach your goals, you need to find someone to hold you accountable to them. That’s it. And I don’t mean a Facebook post or sharing with your spouse either. I’m talking about someone who can be held accountable for your accountability. A trainer, an advisor, a personal board of directors; only you know what you need to get the job done. But having the right team surrounding you is the biggest difference between getting there and giving up.
So many people take pride in doing things on their own. There’s some mystique about being self-motivated and starting from the bottom. Even I fall into that philosophy and the sexiness that comes from being the only one responsible for your success, and then I start thinking about Lebron James.
The greatest basketball player of all time (yeah, all time, I said it) has been in the NBA for 15 seasons and he still has a coach. A bunch of coaches, actually. Every single day on the Cavaliers sidelines there’s Tyronn Lue, along with a host of other strategic coaches, shooting coaches, scouts, personal trainers, medical staff – all absolute experts in their field – and all there to help the greatest player in the world stay great.
Does Lebron really even need a coach? What can you say to possibly improve such a supreme talent?
The short answer: quite a bit.
From small tweaks to his game, scouting reports on competition, or a new fitness study that might allow him play an extra season, all tools that Lebron uses to keep being Lebron. The world is changing, and with that change comes new ideas, strategies, and opportunities. Sure, going at it alone can be rewarding, but given the option, give me a team any day.
Just look at who else has coaches:
Warren Buffett, Jack Welch, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and a long, long list that could keep going. All talented, successful people who got there by assembling a team of people to help them get where they’re going and hold them accountable. Relying on your team isn’t an admission of weakness, it’s indicative of smart people who know they need others to help them be great.
I can imagine most of you are wondering when this article will turn financial and, to be honest, I don’t believe it needs to. Think about the coaches in your life; whether it’s a trainer or nutritionist, Accountant, Attorney, Wealth Manager, or you just wanted to shave a few strokes off the golf game, there are people out there to help and hold you accountable throughout the process.
At some point to be the best, you have to surround yourself with the best. And thus completes my single piece of advice for 2018 – build your team, take advantage of the people you surround yourself with, and take a page out of Lebron’s book by always striving for improvement.
You are a reflection of the five people you surround yourself with most. Instead of a resolution like losing weight or saving more money, why not resolve to invest some time in teambuilding. Develop your professional team and start acting like the person you’ve always thought you could to be. There’s no shortage of good coaches, only a shortage of players stuck in the thinking that they don’t need one. As the year begins, it’s a good time to reflect on which side of the conversation you might fall on.
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